RetroSimba

(Updated Oct. 30, 2024)

Since 1967, the Cardinals have won World Series championships under three different managers.

Red Schoendienst, inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a player in 1989, managed the Cardinals to the 1967 World Series title against the Red Sox.

Whitey Herzog, inducted into the Hall of Fame as a manager in 2010, led the Cardinals to the 1982 World Series championship against the Brewers.

Tony La Russa, inducted into the Hall of Fame as a manager in 2014, guided the Cardinals to two World Series crowns _ 2006 against the Tigers and 2011 against the Rangers.

Here’s how key decisions made by those Cardinals managers helped lead to World Series titles:

RED SCHOENDIENST, 1967 World Series

Key decision: During the regular season, Schoendienst platooned Roger Maris in right field with Alex Johnson. For the World Series, Schoendienst decided to start Maris in every game, figuring his experience (Maris had played in five World Series for the Yankees) gave him the advantage.

“Maris is steady in the field,” Schoendienst said to The Sporting News. “He rarely makes a mistake out there and he doesn’t make mistakes running the bases. He has the advantage of having been through all that World Series pressure.”

It was the right move. Maris hit .385 (10-for-26) with seven RBI and made 15 putouts (with one error in 61 innings) during the seven-game Series.

Key fact: Schoendienst became the fourth manager _ and first in 36 years _ to start the same eight regulars in the same batting order for a World Series that went seven or more games, according to The Sporting News.

The other managers to do so were Jimmy Collins of the 1903 Red Sox, Fred Clarke of the 1909 Pirates and Connie Mack of the 1931 Athletics.

Excluding the pitcher, St. Louis’ batting order for all seven games was: Lou Brock, left field; Curt Flood, center field; Roger Maris, right field; Orlando Cepeda, first base; Tim McCarver, catcher, Mike Shannon, third base; Julian Javier, second base; and Dal Maxvill, shortstop.

Quotable: Bob Gibson was the winning pitcher for three of the Cardinals’ four victories. Asked what he told his team before Game 7, Schoendienst said to the Associated Press, “Nothing. I gave the ball to Gibson.”

WHITEY HERZOG, 1982 World Series

Key decision: After joining the Cardinals in June 1980, Herzog built the team around speed, defense and relief pitching. Two of his cornerstone acquisitions were catcher Darrell Porter and closer Bruce Sutter.

Porter hit .286 with five RBI and prevented eight wild pitches, earning the World Series Most Valuable Player Award. Sutter recorded two saves, including two hitless innings in the Game 7 clincher.

Wrote Palm Beach Post columnist Steve Hummer, “This is the Whitey Herzog Signature Model World Series.”

(According to Memories and Dreams, the magazine of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Tony La Russa said that during an off-season appearance he and Herzog made together in 1983, Herzog advised him about the importance of having a dependable closer. “He said, ‘You’re never a smart manager until you have a quality closer,’ ” La Russa recalled.)

Key fact: The Cardinals utilized speed (seven stolen bases to Milwaukee’s one) with a relentless array of singles and doubles (27 hits to 11 for Milwaukee in the final two games) to overtake the Brewers after losing three of the first five.

Said Tigers manager Sparky Anderson to The Sporting News: “That’s the one thing about a speed-versus-power World Series. Power can stop; can be stopped. Speed never stops.”

Quotable: After St. Louis won Game 7, Herzog said, “We ain’t the best team ever to win a World Series, but we sure as hell ain’t the worst. We played our game all the way: speed and defense, some hitting and some pitching.”

TONY LA RUSSA, 2006 World Series

Key decision: La Russa gambled by naming rookie Anthony Reyes rather than veteran Jason Marquis as the Cardinals’ Game 1 starting pitcher. Reyes was 5-8 during the regular season. He had the fewest wins of any Game 1 starter in World Series history.

“It’s not an easy call. We wrestled with this,” La Russa told the Associated Press.

Relying almost exclusively on a fastball, Reyes delivered. He held the Tigers to four hits and two runs over eight innings and St. Louis won, 7-2. It set the tone for a Series the Cardinals clinched in five games.

Key fact: La Russa became only the second big-league manager to win a World Series championship in each league. Sparky Anderson had done it with the 1975 and ’76 Reds and with the 1984 Tigers. La Russa had won with the 1989 Athletics.

Quotable: After earning the Series championship with a team that had 83 regular-season wins, La Russa told MLB.com, “It was really fun to be around this group. They were so determined.”

TONY LA RUSSA, 2011 World Series

Key decision: La Russa was concerned about starting ace Chris Carpenter in Game 7 on short rest. Starters Kyle Lohse and Edwin Jackson were fully rested. On the morning of Game 7, La Russa told reporters, he called pitching coach Dave Duncan, seeking advice.

“I called (Duncan) in the morning and I said, ‘How about the alternatives?’ He says, ‘Are you kidding? It’s Chris Carpenter.’ And he hung up.”

La Russa started Carpenter, who rewarded him with six solid innings and earned the win in the Cardinals’ 6-2 victory.

Key fact: With the win, the Cardinals improved to 7-1 when Game 7 of a World Series is played at St. Louis.

Quotable: Third baseman David Freese, winner of the 2011 World Series MVP Award, told New York Times columnist George Vecsey of La Russa, “He’s got a plan with every thought, with everything he says.”

(Updated Oct. 29, 2020)

Kansas City was a fitting site for Tony La Russa’s appearance as a manager in the All-Star Game.

La Russa, who left the Cardinals after leading them to the 2011 World Series title, came back and managed the National League to an 8-0 victory in the All-Star Game on July 10, 2012, at Kansas City. Boxscore

Kansas City was where La Russa scored his first big-league run, and had his first big-league at-bat and first big-league hit, when he was a rookie infielder for the Athletics in 1963.

Prime prospect

La Russa was a 17-year-old shortstop for Jefferson High School in Tampa, Fla., when he was signed by the Athletics to a package worth $100,000 on June 7, 1962, the same night he received his high school diploma. He batted .479 his senior season.

La Russa was signed by Athletics scout Charlie Gassaway and supervisor of scouts Joe Bowman. Because Major League Baseball didn’t have a draft at that time, any team could bid for a prospect. According to The Sporting News, 17 scouts representing 14 teams approached La Russa. The Yankees and Indians joined the Athletics as top bidders.

“We think he is one of the outstanding infielders in the country,” Bowman said. “He is the highest-priced infielder Kansas City ever signed.”

Athletics owner Charlie Finley met with La Russa to seal the deal, which included $8,000 toward a college education, plus a new car. La Russa chose a white Pontiac Bonneville with black leather interior, according to the book “Tony La Russa, Man on a Mission.”

Rushed to majors

After a summer of minor-league baseball in 1962, La Russa returned home to Tampa. While playing in a softball game, he injured his throwing arm, according to the “Man on a Mission” book. With his right arm in a sling, La Russa was unable to play in spring training for the Athletics in 1963.

La Russa, 18, made his major-league debut on May 10, 1963, as a pinch-runner for Chuck Essegian in the eighth inning of the Athletics’ game against the Twins at Minnesota. Boxscore

Utilized primarily as a pinch-runner by manager Eddie Lopat, La Russa appeared in his first 14 big-league games without an at-bat. He scored his first big-league run on July 13, 1963, in the second game of a doubleheader against the Indians at Kansas City.

Running for Gino Cimoli, La Russa scored from second on a bases-loaded double by Jerry Lumpe in the fifth inning. The game is noteworthy, not for La Russa’s run, but because Indians pitcher Early Wynn earned his 300th and last major-league win. Boxscore

A month later, La Russa got his first at-bat. It occurred on a Thursday afternoon, Aug. 15, 1963, at Kansas City. After replacing Lumpe at second base in the fifth inning, La Russa faced Tigers starter Hank Aguirre in the sixth and flied out to center fielder Bill Bruton. Boxscore

La Russa’s first major-league hit came two days later at Kansas City. Pinch-hitting in the sixth for pitcher Bill Fischer, La Russa hit a two-out triple to right off Orioles starter Steve Barber, a 20-game winner that year. Boxscore

According to the “Man on a Mission” book, La Russa, near the end of the season, told a Kansas City reporter, “I know I’ll be sent down next season and I’m looking forward to it. I’ve learned a lot from our players and also by watching such fine shortstops as (Wayne) Causey, Luis Aparicio, Zoilo Versailles and others. I’ve had plenty of help from everyone on the club, especially catcher Charlie Lau, who detected a hitch in my swing at the plate.”

It would be five years before La Russa would return to the major leagues. By then, the Athletics had moved from Kansas City to Oakland.